WONDERLAND
by NICHA
Summary: One boy stumbles through the Looking-Glass while another is pushed down the Rabbit Hole...     Character Deaths, torture, and "will they, won't they?" ensues.
1. Prologue: Danse Macabre

**Title: ****WONDERLAND**

**Author: Sohei NICHA**

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**Genre: Action / Suspense / Sci-fi/Fantasy**

**Rate: M **(Because of the first part fo sho)

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**Notes: **This is a sort of (very screwed up) "Alice in Wonderland"/ "Through the Looking-Glass" thing. If you are squeem-ish of torture and the likes, then please proceed with caution or turn back now. **This is not like any of my other stories**. It's not really BL of any sort, but it will contain lots of people dying.

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**Also:** If you could find it in your heart, _please_ **review** so that I know you actually want me to continue with this story or if you just think I'm a sicko for writing this up.

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**WARNING:**

**Torture** ahead.

**Character deaths** ahead.

**It is very, very, **_**very**_** important that you heed this warning.**

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**Prologue . . . Danse Macabre**

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_A boy, aged twelve, is pushed down the Rabbit Hole…_

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Sasuke felt the two men drag him into the house and immediately saw his mother being restrained.

She was screaming.

His brother, Itachi was kneeling on the floor, frozen, and with a gun to his temple. And finally, his father stood at the door, wrists tied behind his back, and mouth dripping blood. A black eye marked his strong face. Sasuke was forced into a seat at the kitchen, the backpack full of his sixth grade homework was thrust away; it hit a wall and ripped. Then, a man stepped into the room from the house's living room walkway.

"Ah, Sasuke, I'm so glad you could be here," he said, a scarf muffling his voice slightly; a ghostly, pale hand brought the cloth down to uncover his mouth. The man had genetically familiar jet black hair, and bloody red eyes that looked down upon Sasuke with interest. "Mikoto, I see that this one inherited your looks— he's quite the cutie."

Mikoto panicked, "DON'T TOUCH SASUKE!" she shouted, "DON'T TOUCH HIM!" the man swiftly moved to her side; she gasped shallowly as the breath was knocked out of her.

He then straightened and calmly walked over to the struggling Fugaku. "Well?" there was laughter in his voice, "Aren't _you_ going to yell at me too? Banish me? Do _something_?" He held up a bloody, pink piece of flesh.

Sasuke stifled a whimper. It was a tongue. It was his father's _tongue_…

The man ran the appendage over Fugaku's square jaw once, walked over to the sink and dropped it into the food disposal, watching as the machine ground it into bloody pulps of muscle. His mouth's corners turned upwards. Fugaku looked up at the man defiantly with his hard, charcoal eyes; sweat dripping from his face. "Salt," said the cruel man calmly; when he received it he spoke again, "Open his mouth," he instructed two of his men. They did as they were told. Sasuke watched as his father's knees hit the ground. The sound reverberated through his ears: it was a heavy thump.

A click was heard to his left and he saw Itachi's eyes flicker to him for a moment. The man that held the gun to him then brought the metal object down forcefully onto his head. Itachi gave a startled grunt and hung his head, unconscious.

"Madara— you can't _do_ this!" sobbed Mikoto. The man however, looked at her with little interest and quickly went back to his original target.

"Open wide, 'Fu-gaki'," then he twisted the cap off of the salt shaker and poured it over the wound in Fugaku's mouth.

Sasuke watched as his father went ridged and started writing in pain. He was sure that his father would be screaming if he could make any noise. Fugaku thrashed, trying to release his jaws from the two men.

Mikoto yelled, unable to form words, until she was reduced to small whimpers.

Madara looked at Sasuke when the container was empty. It shattered on the floor and he walked towards the trembling twelve-year-old. He caressed one of the pale cheeks, "I was thrown out of the family a little bit before you were born." Madara bent to Sasuke's ear, "But rest assured, this isn't the first time _I've_ seen _you_…"

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_Three years later…_

_A boy stumbles through the Looking Glass…_

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Naruto looked inside of the cabinet with a cheeky grin, "_I'm _finally_ here!"_ he thought as he looked around, scanning his father's police office. The scent of coffee wafted through the air. His father was at another meeting right now and Naruto had _two whole_ hours to fill. So with that information, he thought that the only logical thing to do was entertain himself. The boy went through the desk with light-hearted, blue eyes that shone with excitement. He picked up a tape and put it into the VCR, pressing the "PLAY" button. The screen was black until—

"DON'T TOUCH SASUKE! DON'T TOUCH HIM!"

Naruto's eyes widened, "_Sasuke_?" He felt his stomach churn and instantly knew that this was not a tape to watch. But somehow he couldn't eject it. His body wouldn't obey his commands to move and before he knew it, the tape was finished and blank. Naruto's breathing was uneasy and he looked into the black screen. His reflection was pale and there were trails running down his cheeks.

He wiped them away and ran a hand through his spiky blond hair.

"_This is stupid_," he thought, "_I'm frigging fifteen. Fifteen! I'm too old to cry._"

Sasuke…

Sasuke Uchiha.

Yes, he remembered him. Sasuke was pale, dark haired and smart. Naruto never really got along with him but seeing the boy frozen in fear on the screen was too much. To see your mother tortured and killed was a lot to ask a sixth grader. Then— a thought struck Naruto: where _was_ Sasuke? When he had first noticed the Uchiha's absence he hadn't minded much. "One less jackass in the world," he had thought.

"Naruto, how've you been?" Naruto whipped around at the voice. It was his father, smiling like the sun. Unexpectedly, the tape popped out, finished from rewinding. Minato then noticed his open desk drawer from the corner of his eye and then his brilliant blue eyes seemed to go gray with ice, "Naruto…"

"Wha— what—" The blond swallowed hard, "What happened to Sasuke?" when his father looked at him there was a tired look in his eye. He knew that there was nothing he could hide from his son that he would soon find out.

He began, "This case started three years ago. The bodies were found by a Kisame Hoshigaki when he was looking for the eldest son, Itachi Uchiha. He had walked in, found Itachi and tried to untie him from a post— Itachi's neck had been broken and once he was untied—" Minato's lips pressed together, "The father, Fugaku Uchiha's tongue was cut out and we found sodium chloride on the wound in his mouth. And the mother, Mikoto Uchiha's body had been terribly mutilated— both parents had been decapitated with a kitchen cleaver with Sasuke and another unidentified person's fingerprints on it. The tape was found at the seat where we calculate Sasuke must have sat on. And as for what actually happened to Sasuke…"

Naruto handed his father the tape numbly, hands shaking…

"Sasuke Uchiha is still missing."

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Naruto's reeling head hit the pillow on his twin sized bed and he looked up at the ceiling. The tape really didn't leave anything out because he never wanted to see anything like it again.

_But despite that— it made his thoughts race in a mix of excitement and dread…_

His mother called to him to take a shower. He got up and grabbed a pair of boxers and his pajamas. Then he began to walk to the bathroom. The hallway looked so long at the moment but it took so short to travel in his daze. Once inside, he looked into the mirror and saw his reflection. It was a different reflection from the one five hours before. He turned away from the dead blue eyes in the mirror quickly and began to strip down. Naruto stepped into the shower and turned on the water.

…_And he knew that it would not be the last time he saw such horrific scenes._

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**End . Danse Macabre**

**Sohei NICHA**


	2. Part One: Blood Red Hair

**Title: ****WONDERLAND**

**Author: Sohei NICHA**

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**Genre: Action / Suspense / Sci-fi/Fantasy**

**Rate: M**

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**Notes: **This is a sort of (a very screwed up) "Alice in Wonderland"/ "Through the Looking-Glass" thing.

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_One boy stumbles through the Looking-Glass while another is pushed down the Rabbit Hole..._

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**WARNING:**

**Torture** lies ahead and behind.

**Character deaths** lay ahead and behind.

**It is very, very, **_**very**_** important that you heed this warning.**

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**Part One**

**_First Move_ . . . Blood-Red Hair (of the Innocent Voice)**

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_And so the pawn sat in square one, waiting to move across the board…_

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The man's cell phone rang and he reached for it. "Yeah?" he asked, voice scratching through the calm soundtrack of a park on a weekend's afternoon. He stood beside a large fountain in a clearing; crowds of cheerful but quiet people littered the area, meandering to their next destination.

A beam of sunlight peeked out from behind a feathery cumulus cloud and rebounded off the surface of the coin fountain, sending a glare over his tanned face.

"Humor me: has anything happened where you are, Naruto?" asked the voice on the other end.

For the past five years, Naruto had (just barely) gotten through school, and had begun to train even more in earnest once he had graduated. After demanding from his dad that he "look for Sasuke Uchiha at least with a group" for well over four years had his father finally allowed him to investigate— but only if Minato would lead them, and that Naruto would report any information on the case back to him.

Today, however…

"Nothing, dad," Naruto grunted unhappily, "I haven't seen anything."

Minato nodded on his side of the line, "…Don't worry, we'll find something out about Sasuke, but until then, please focus on this mission."

"… Not that I want to anyways…"

"Remember to watch out for and report anything suspicious, Naruto," the man murmured to his son before hanging up.

Naruto shut his cellphone and then frowned as he held it up and stared at it with a flicker of resentment in his eyes. Then, he looked up, only to see that the orange sweatshirt he was wearing made some people glare at him fiercely, for in the sunlight it was near blinding. His sunglasses clouded a bit and he cleaned them with the sleeve of his shirt. A girl with pink hair caught his eye and he put the orange-tinted eye appliance back on to wink at her with a slight smile. She smiled and came over, hips swinging with each step. Her green eyes looked at him and she wrapped one of her arms around his waist, asking:

"What have you seen?"

"Nothing— yet," Naruto answered, "Just like normal." The two began to walk down the pathway, "That may be a good thing though. It's frustrating, but…"

Sakura's eyebrows narrowed. "We'll find him," she said concretely, "I know we will."

Her companion nodded. "I know," he responded, blue eyes wandering around. The blonde saw the trees' many shades of green, the rough browns of the bark, blurs of color as people passed by the couple, and the chrome of vendors' carts. He could hear cars' horns in the distance, chatters and conversations, and young children laughing. His eyes closed for a moment and he inhaled the scent of algae and grass deeply, trying to clear his racing mind.

There was only one thing that he wanted right now, and that was to figure out what had happened to the young boy in that video tape he had seen five years ago. The suspense was killing him and he didn't know if the expression was real or fake anymore— whether it was still an expression or what was really happening to him.

Naruto frowned and then opened his eyes only to see two burly men tailing a much more slender-looking male. His eyes narrowed, "Hey, Sakura," he pulled her forward, "What do you think of those guys?"

"I was going to ask you the same thing," she smirked, "Let's tail 'em— but if they go into that stinking pee-shack that you guys call a bathroom, then you're on your own."

He nodded good-humoredly and then, the two followed the men, chattering light-heartedly with eyes still focused on their targets.

The imposing men followed the pale, green-haired man silently. The man would occasionally look over his shoulder before quickening his pace slightly; he never once stopped until he made it to the restrooms, where the men entered soon after him.

Naruto cracked his neck and then grinned at the pink-haired girl at his side, "Watch out for anything bad happening here, alright?"

She nodded, "Well, then you better keep your guard up and then I won't bust your ass afterwards."

The blond placed his hands in his pockets, fingering a box-cutter as he walked in through the cold, dim passageway to the moldy toilets and urinals of the men's restroom. Naruto reached a leaking water fountain, stepping into the shallow puddle at its base; he rounded the corner of the passage before bumping into a red-head.

"Sorry," the red-head muttered, running a sickly-pale hand through his fiery hair before his slate-colored eyes flickered up to look at the blond quickly.

Naruto's eyes widened slightly and his lips parted slightly.

Something about that gaze seemed… familiar…

The red-head then looked and stepped away from him, walking purposefully over to the exit. Blue eyes followed the man's figure before zoning in on a single strand of ebony hair in the mess of red. The blond quickly took out his cellphone, "Sakura," he said quickly, "Follow the ginger-guy that just walked out of the restrooms."

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"There wasn't any red-head of _any_ sort walking out of there!" Sakura huffed, "_However_, a brown-haired, blue-eyed guy and a blonde guy did when you called!"

Naruto had found his companion still at the entrance by the time he had returned, a look of pure concentration upon her face at the time. They were now hissing at each other under their breaths, faces in the expression of feigned bliss.

"Well, what the Hell was going on with those other guys then, Big Brother?" the woman snarled.

At this the blond flushed, "well— ah— uhm…" he stuttered, "well, I got in there and I couldn't find him, but I _did_ see those…" Naruto looked up at the sky, anywhere but at Sakura, "… Bears…" he muttered.

Pink eyebrows shot up and the female softly "oh"-ed.

"Uhm, mister?"

Naruto turned around at the soft voice; behind him stood an adolescent girl with pigtailed orange hair. He smiled, "Yeah?"

"That man over there asked me to give this to you." In her hand was a small disk.

The blond looked past her with a sudden surge of alertness, "What man?" he gasped.

She blinked at his unexpected excitement and looked around, "W-well, _that_…" her eyebrows furrowed, "Ah— he's gone!"

As she tried to apologize to him, he observed the disk, muttering "it's okay" to her every once in a while. Sakura placed a hand on Naruto's arm and led him away, reassuring the girl as the two walked away from her. However, even as he was lead down the path, walking, the man's eyes were still locked in on the case and all of what it may have contained for him.

"We'll look at it," Sakura reassured him.

He nodded once. "Do you think it's from him?" the blond asked after a moment.

A smile played on the woman's lips, "At the way you're going about it, Naruto, _everything_ is from him."

He didn't answer back. After all…

He didn't know if she was right anymore.

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_The pawn, now in the Looking Glass world knew his calling: defeat the Red Queen and find their King…_

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Naruto placed the disk into the computer drive and the two watched the screen in rapture as a window containing multiple files popped up. He looked at Sakura.

He swallowed. "Sakura, maybe we should test the fingerprints?" the man asked.

She shook her head, "We've got the girl and our fingerprints all over it already." She bit her thumb nail, "Besides, we shouldn't even be doing this right now anyways… we're totally slacking and we'd get kicked off of this case anyways…"

The blonde grinned then, "My dad's gonna kill me…" he chuckled nervously, and with shaking hands, clicked on the first audio file.

The speakers then filled with a rich voice very much similar than that of the red-head Naruto had seen at the park.

"_Hello,"_ the disk played, the voice crackled slightly and the two could hear voices and laughter in the background. _"Who are you really and why are you following me, Naruto Uzumaki?"_

The blond's breath caught and Sakura's eyes widened as she turned to look at him in surprise. He opened his mouth but remained speechless as to how the man on the recording knew who he was.

"_You really haven't changed a bit since middle school,"_ the voice said with a quiet snicker.

Naruto then bolted up out of his seat, causing the chair to crash down on the floor behind him. "Sasuke!" he shouted. Sakura's eyes narrowed and she firmly grasped his arm to restrain the man before he did anything brash and harmful.

"_Get your men off of my case. You're not worth the trouble it takes to clean up your dead body from my floors anyways."_

And with that, the message ended.

Sakura exited from the file and then clicked another one in the window, "You're sure it's him?" she asked quietly.

He nodded. "It _has_ to be him, Sakura," the man said. "It's _his _case— he knows how I looked like in middle school— he has black hair— I _saw_ some…!" Eagerness possessed him, "It's him, Sakura! It _has_ to be!"

She shook her head slowly, "But then why would he be in public?" the woman mused, "Wouldn't he try to escape the man who took him? Why would he try to escape us?" She bit her lip, "It just doesn't make sense…" Sakura clenched her fists, "What if you're just putting the facts together the way you want them to be, Naruto? Optimism is great, but—"

"_You're not worth the trouble it takes to clean up your dead body from my floors anyways…" _the voice said, interrupting Sakura's questioning, _"After all…_

"_They'll always be my floors."_

"His house…" Sakura murmured, green eyes narrowing as images of blood-stained tile and grout flooded her vision.

"_You know, Naruto,"_ the file continued, _"you actually used to be one of the more intriguing people to watch at school… I never really talked to anyone, obviously; however, you always seemed to somehow catch my attention… I don't think I ever really hated you back then, but you never really liked me all too much for some reason… I may have actually resented you for that…"_

Naruto reached out to shut off the speakers, but then Sakura stopped him before he made contact with the electronic.

"Wait," she said to him.

"… _But, then I saw you today and I had an epiphany. Oh, sorry, silly me,"_ the voice said blandly, _"If you haven't changed, then I'm sure you still don't know what that means, you Dead-Last."_

The blond felt a surge of anger and then reached out to take the computer screen and throw it at a wall. Sakura once again grasped his arm.

"This is _my_ computer, Naruto," she growled. Then she looked back at the screen with eyes full of angst, "Don't you _dare_ break it before we find out what he says next…"

"_I realized…"_ the voice paused, _"that even though you're trying to find me, it's best if you stay away…"_

"Not true…" Naruto breathed, "THAT'S NOT TRUE!" he yelled louder, as if the recording could send his message over to the source of the voice.

"_So I want you to stop trying to look for clues—"_

The blond furiously clicked on the next file after the recording hit its end while Sakura spoke at his side, trying to get through to him, "Sasuke's house— the old Uchiha district! Naruto—! That's where we should start looking—"

"_Stop trying to look for clues—"_

And the next…

"_Trying to look for clues—"_

And the next…

"_Look for clues—"_

And the next…

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_And so the game began: White Pawn to D-4._

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"It's really eerie here," Sakura murmured, "Being in a place where a family died…" she trailed off. "I'm looking around," she swallowed, "and I can see everything that happened…" the pink-haired woman smiled slightly, "The tape…" Sakura remembered the tape— watching it on the first day of the mission so that she could get background on whatever the Hell was going on.

But when she saw it, she remembered her stomach churning as she watched a family's father tortured and then brutally murdered by his youngest child; a mother, mutilated and then killed by her own child; a family's elder son, just waiting to die if somebody was foolish enough to let him move free; and a young boy who watched it all happen, only to wind up forced to behead his mother and father with a kitchen knife.

She remembered vomiting afterwards…

A hand on the small of her back jolted her out of her thoughts. She looked up at the man beside her.

"Are you okay, Sakura?"

The pink-haired woman smiled again, about to answer…

They heard a noise and then instinctively moved their hands to their holsters where their guns rested. Their eyes scanned the dimly-lit hallway, alert. Sakura felt her heart quicken as she sped over to and pressed herself against the wall. Naruto stood boldly beside her, gun at the ready. He looked at her and she looked back, "Are you ready?" she whispered.

He nodded.

"You two… you're close?" asked a voice from the stairs.

They turned and pointed their guns at the voice before lowering them at the sight they saw: a small beam of light filtered in through dusty windows; it fell upon a short, young man with blood-red hair. He looked upon the two with half-hooded eyes, "My, my…" he murmured, "What wonderful art you would make."

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**End . Blood-Red Hair**

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**Review.**

**Sohei NICHA**


	3. Part One: The Human Doll

**Title: ****WONDERLAND**

**Author: Sohei NICHA**

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**Genre: Action / Suspense / Sci-fi/Fantasy**

**Rate: M**

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**Notes: **This is a sort of (a very screwed up) "Alice in Wonderland"/ "Through the Looking-Glass" thing.

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_One boy stumbles through the Looking Glass while another is pushed down the Rabbit Hole..._

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**WARNING:**

**Torture** lies ahead and behind.

**Character deaths** lay ahead and behind.

**It is very, very, **_**very**_** important that you heed this warning.**

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**Part One**

**_Second Move_ . . . The Human Doll**

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"What wonderful art you would make," the man murmured softly.

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_Unknowingly, the Pawn had wandered into a garden full of carnivorous flowers, each jostling him; awakening him…_

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The man looked over the two with a dementedly wise gaze despite his youthful appearance. "What are you doing here?" he questioned with restraint, slowly rocking from foot to foot; his figure wavered in and out of a streak of thick shadow and a beam of light in the hallway. "This is a bad place…" The man said somberly, tilting his head slightly as he watched them, "Really bad…"

Sakura audibly swallowed, "Who are you?" she half-whispered as she cautiously stepped forward, lowering her arm. Naruto gripped her wrist and held it back up, still pointing his gun at the other male.

The red head ignored the question, taking out a wooden puppet replica of himself. He held it up, manipulating its extremities. "My friend died over there," the puppet motioned to a thin support beam at the far-side of the room and the man walked closer to it. He knelt down beside it and then ran a pale finger over worn grooves in the wooden post; he closed his eyes and breathed in the house's long-since-gone scent of blood and fear. "My friend thinks that this house is still occupied," he chuckled slightly, "Ghosts… how stupid is that?"

Naruto could hear the blood pump in his ears and felt Sakura's muscles tense within the grip of his hand. "Who are you?" he said, clearing his throat to recover strength in his voice, "What do you know about Sasuke?"

The man stood up, "I am Sasori. I was a friend of Itachi's before he died." He gripped tightly at his replica, "You know," Sasori began: "I wish I had one of these bodies…" A far-off look came over his features, "I'd make my new body out of sandalwood and bones, carve out my heart, and place it right here," he pointed at the replica's torso, right where a heart would be on a living, breathing human. "I'd gouge out my eyes…"

"What are you doing here?" Sakura spoke, quickly, unease in her voice.

The red-head stared at her. "What are _you_ doing here?" he snapped, "This isn't public property for you to flounce around in like the stringed marionettes you happen to be— right into the Uchiha's Web."

"What are you doing here?" Naruto glared, lowering his gun, "Did Sasuke send us to you? Did he send you to _us_?"

Sasori turned to the blond lazily, "Sasuke once told me that he spent a lot of time in his room…" he smirked and stepped over to the stairs that lead upstairs, "He just spent time… pacing and dreaming, apparently." He placed a pale hand on the stair banister and began to calmly walk up the steps.

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"_Beware… the jaws that bite, the claws that catch!" the Pawn had remembered being warned as he felt the grasp of vines bind him, rendering him immobile…_

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Up and up, the stairs never seemed to have an end.

Naruto looked at Sasori's back as the man ascended the stairs in front of him and Sakura. "How do we know we can trust you?" he asked, "You never told me what you know about where Sasuke is." The blond grit his teeth, "Tell me where he is…!"

Sakura gripped the back of his shirt firmly without hindering his movements, "Naruto," she whispered.

The blond turned around to look at her, his eyebrows furrowed; and then he turned back to the man who led them to their supposed first destination.

Sasori had paused and was watching them, speaking…

Or… _was_ he…?

The two looked up at him in a haze of confusion.

The red head stared at them blankly, playing with his tinier self and speaking; however, as the moments passed, sound seemed to stop, only letting the rough beatings of their hearts reverberate through the silence on the stairs. Sasori then stopped stepping upwards and turned to them, the same calm look upon his face before gliding down the hallway.

"It's like he's on strings…" Sakura murmured, finding her voice as she followed after him.

Naruto frowned, heart beating fast as he stared down the dark passage. He rubbed at his eyes, wondering if there was something wrong with his vision. Something was a bit off, but he hadn't a clue as to what it was. Everything looked right, but…

His mind told him something was wrong.

Sasori opened the last door on the left and motioned for Naruto and Sakura to walk into the room, standing outside the frame.

Sakura stepped forward cautiously with a sideways glance at the red head. "We better get what we want," she hissed at him. His only response was a small smirk.

Naruto looked at him. "Why aren't you going in too?" he asked after a moment of hesitation.

Sasori's smile widened. "Because of the presence…" he answered, pressing his puppet closely to his chest, "That's why I'll be at the bottom of the stairs— waiting." The man then strode down the hallway, softly cooing to his beloved dream-body.

Blue eyes watched him until he had disappeared part-way down the staircase; then, Naruto entered the old bedroom. Sakura was gazing out of a window, drawing back a light blue curtain; letting light into the room as she rubbed at the film of dust that had built up on the pane. The blond looked around the room.

There, at the other side of the room was a bed that had not been made for eight years, its sheets covered in a grey fluff that in any other house, would have been taken care of, but something was different about the Uchiha District, apparently. Not even the shattered pieces of a night-lamp had been swept up from the day it had been broken. The blond man frowned and then looked at the wooden desk that was situated on the other side of the room from the bed and the chair that had a light jacket on its back; littered on the floor were little trinkets that were covered in a fair amount of dust: a yen coin, a pound, and a euro; a scattering of differently sized, shaped, and colored blue sea-glass; a woodchip in the shape of a comma; and a little, paperclip spiral.

"So…"

Naruto looked up from the floor and at his partner.

Sakura turned around and tilted her chin up confidently, "Where should we start?"

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"GOD DAMN IT!"

Sasori looked up, straightening from his slump on the bottom step of the staircase. After a moment, he shrugged and went back to tinkering with his puppet again.

He smiled slightly.

Its hair was cut exactly like his was; its eyes gazed back at him the same way his did…

He heard another yell; this time, he heard the girl too.

"Don't damage anything, Naruto!"

"But there's _got_ to be something here!" There was a sound of furniture scraping sharply on the hard-wood floor upstairs, "There _has_ to be—!"

The red head sighed. "He spent most of his time pacing and dreaming…" he murmured to the figure in his hand.

Its hand lolled over his fist in its reply to his question.

Sasori smiled and then giggled a bit as he felt an odd sensation at his thigh. "Hello?" he said into his cellphone after opening it.

"_How is it going?"_ the caller asked, voice smooth and deep

The man looked up with his eyes, "They're still searching the room." He answered, "I wouldn't just _give_ them the information…" Sasori placed his replica on the stairs next to him, "If I made things too easy for them then they'd eventually make _check_, right?" his lips quirked upwards, "And we can't let them catch our King so easily in the game, am I correct?"

"… _Correct_." The voice did not seem to voice any emotion whatsoever, but the hesitation was enough to remind Sasori that the one he was talking to was a human and not a doll.

He stuck a hand into a large pocket and brought out two other dolls, "Mother and father…" he placed them in his lap, digging back into the pouch again; this time retrieving a blond and a pink-haired doll. The red head looked back up the steps to the dolls' human counterparts.

The man was still searching in the room; however, the woman was watching him, glaring.

"What are those?" she asked, eyes darkening as she noticed the puppets in Sasori's hands.

Sasori cheekily held up Sakura's doll and pocketed his "mother" and "father". "You should keep looking—" he murmured, "tear up the whole place— rip apart the floors; the walls—" His eyes seemed to sparkle as light bounced off the color of his irises, "Go _crazy_."

Sakura gave a frustrated huff and walked back into the room.

The man went back to his cellphone. "Are you still there?" he asked.

_Dial-tone…_

The voice was gone.

"_I guess not, then…" _Sasori turned off the device, looking back at his puppets lovingly. A mischievous smile then graced his features after a moment of thought. His eyes narrowed, "Pew-pew-pew!" he spoke, making the Sakura doll kick its companion.

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"OW! Why'd you kick me?" hollered Naruto grabbing his abused leg dejectedly.

Sakura looked startled. "Sorry, I didn't do it on purpose!" she defended, "It may have been just a leg twitch…"

The blond frowned. "Three times?" he growled, "Like Hell was it just a leg twitch— it was totally on purpose!" He eyed her carefully and then went back to his search, muttering about how he only knew good-looking liars and every good-looking person he knew was a liar or in any way "fucked up".

His companion scowled and then went back to her search, tossing up blue coverlets and lifting the Uchiha's pillow. Her eyes softened when she saw a dark strand of hair, approximately six centimeters long on the sheets. She reached out and picked it up, smiling. _"We're going to bring you back, Sasuke…"_ Sakura thought, hoping that the young man knew that he was going to be rescued from whatever distorted world he now resided in.

"Sakura," Naruto whined, shoving a desk drawer shut and stepping closer to her, "This place is weird and when that guy started talking about…" he shuddered, "'_presences'_…"

The pink-haired woman paused for a moment before laughing, "Aw, c'mon, Naruto," she chuckled, "The ghost thing again?"

Naruto grumbled.

Sakura reached out to pat the man's shoulder, but, her eyes widened—

"SHIT!" Naruto sprawled backward, landing on his back while clutching his nose, "What was that for?" he yelled, blood dribbling down his chin.

"I-I— I don't know!" Sakura drew back her hand and looked around, panicked. "I didn't mean to— WHOA—!" She charged forward, straight at the other; fist at the ready.

Blue eyes widened and then narrowed as the man rolled to the side as a fist slammed into the floor where he had just been laying. At the point of impact, the floor bent inward and then cracked, splintering under her fist. "Saku—"

"Get out of the _way_, Naruto!" the woman growled, throwing her fist into the wall behind him had he not moved his head out of the way soon enough. "Fuuu-ck!" she hissed as he hand throbbed. She looked at him, emerald eyes frightened, "Naruto, I'm not trying to do this…" she murmured.

Her companion looked at her. "Y-yeah…" he nodded. His eyes traveled around the room, "But we have to work faster now…" the man growled, "I'm not leaving here without finding a way to get Sasuke back, but I'm not going to let you be used like this…"

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_In the hardened bed of flowers, each blossom was hungry for flesh; each gave a harsh cry as the Pawn's eyes were opened…_

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"_There…!"_

Naruto's eyes widened a fraction at the voice that seemed to whisper into his ear from behind him. He quickly looked behind him for the source, but only saw tear-colored wall.

"_Look back there…"_

His gaze returned to the broken plank that Sakura had destroyed and then breathed in, looking back at his friend before dodging her uprising knee to his stomach.

"S-sorry, Naruto…" Sakura gasped, brows furrowing in thought as she recovered her stance.

The blond, not hearing the whispered words, dove to the floor; rapidly tearing out the floor-boards with less effort than he initially thought it would take. He grinned breathlessly at the leather carrier-bag; he grabbed it and hurled himself out of the way as a heeled boot came smashing down into the hole in the floor.

Opening the bag, Naruto saw an odd blade with intricate curves, angles, and three colors; a television remote; and a centimeter-thick, fist-sized mirror with the Uchiha emblem shining proudly upon its back. His eyes crossed in confusion for a moment and he flipped the heavy glass over a few times. On his third look into the mirror he saw his friend once again try to strike against him; however, this time, he saw something.

Something extra…

Naruto turned his head around to try to see if those extra items really existed before glancing back in the mirror.

There was a chuckle in his ear; at the back of his head, _"Use them,"_ commanded the voice with amusement. _"Maybe you'll manage to save your pretty little cock from your lady-friend's stiletto, Kit…"_

After a moment, the man growled, "Shit…" he muttered, deftly grabbing the blade from within the bag. "Sakura…" he stepped closer, "hold still."

Sakura's eyes widened as she watched her friend advance upon her with a blade in one hand. "Naruto— whatever I've done to you— have I done anything to you?" she gasped and tried to move her body, but found herself paralyzed, "Shit— never mind—" She grit her teeth, "I can assure you that whatever I did never amounted to killing me!"

Naruto raised both his hands reassuringly. "Calm down," he grinned, "You're going to be fine. I just need to get some stuff off of you—"

"Stuff?" Sakura balked, "stuff that has to be taken off with a knife?" the woman yelled, "I don't think so!"

The blond ignored her and then gently pushed her down to her knees before beginning to hack away at the air above her. "They're strings…" he said lightly.

Sakura looked up with weary eyes and watched the man, her shoulders shaking as she saw him cut at nothingness. She gave a cry of despair. _"He's crazy— yeah, that's it— Naruto's gone crazy! He thinks that I have strings controlling me or something…"_ She froze and then felt her arm twitch before she turned to look at it, lifting it; flexing her hand experimentally.

She looked up and then thought that she saw faint cables tumbling down from the ceiling to hang above her. She felt felt her throat run dry.

A marionette.

That's what she had been: a simple puppet.

"He had one of you too…" Sakura said.

Naruto finished slicing through the last chord and stepped back, "Who had one of what?" he asked.

"Sasori," the green-eyed woman stood up abruptly, heading to the door, "He had a doll of you too."

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**End . The Human Doll**

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**Review.**

**Sohei NICHA**


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